Ballad for One Gun

Ballad for One Gun is a 1963 Australian television film about Ned Kelly broadcast on ABC. It was originally aired 17 July 1963 in Sydney and shown at later dates in other parts of Australia. It was written by Phillip Grenville Mann.[3] The director Ray Menmuir called it "“definitely a new approach and a new treatment of the whole Ned Kelly legend."[4]

Ballad for One Gun
Advertisemtnt from SMH 17 Jul 1963
Written byPhilip Grenville Mann
Directed byRaymond Menmuir
Country of originAustralia
Original language(s)English
Production
Running time60 mins
Production company(s)ABC
Release
Original networkABC
Original release17 July 1963 (Sydney, Canberra, Newcastle)[1]
11 September 1963 (Melbourne)[2]

Australian drama was relatively rare on television at the time, although there had been a TV play called Ned Kelly (1959) produced.[5]

Plot

The story of Ned Kelly which made him out to be "a dangerous embryo dictator, murderously vindictive and swaggeringly brutal in his hour of power." John Bell played Kelly but his face was never shown, he was only heard behind a mask.[1]

Cast

Production

The play was acquired by the ABC and BBC in 1961.[6] Mann said "the play is not, and does not seek to be, an exact historical record."[2]

Raymond Menmuir made it after having been in Britain for two years.[7] It starred John Bell who called the play "definitely a new approach and a new treatment of the whole Ned Kelly legend... We play the Kelly gang rather like a band of young hoods but the crux of the play is in the change of motivations and attitudes".[4] Sets were adapted from Sidney Nolan's paintings about Kelly.[4]

The advertising said "Ned Kelly - a betrayed Robin Hood or a thug meeting a well deserved fate."[8]

Reception

The TV critic for Sydney Morning Herald thought there was an uneasy co-existence between the depiction of the Ned Kelly gang "as young hoodlums of today in a dream-setting" and "conventional and "Patriot" type inserts of the haughty, high-cravatted police official Captain Standish" and the "slapstick" bank holdup scene. He added that John Bell "played his role with fine command and energy, but had all too little chance to develop his subject or do it justice" and felt the play had "little to say either about Kelly or his story" and "often moved sluggishly and unconvincingly."[1]

The Bulletin called it "ludicrous... a loud misfire".[4]

The Sunday Sydney Morning Herald called it "a beautifully written superbly produced piece of confusion... Technically it was a magnificent achievement... [with] the brilliance of some of those American workshop dramas screened by the ABC last year. But technical brilliant is not enough. A play must still say something. And frankly I am still baffled by what author Mann had to say... It was a tricky offbeat experiment that partly came off."[9]

Awards

Mark McManus won a Best Television Performance award for his performance.[10]

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References
  1. "Ballad of One Gun". Sydney Morning Herald. 18 July 1963. p. 7.
  2. "Ned Kelly - 1963". The Age. 5 September 1963. p. 9.
  3. "TELEVISION AND RADIO". The Canberra Times. 17 July 1963. p. 35. Retrieved 15 March 2015 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. Roberts, Frank (27 June 1963). "TELEVISION Gore Hill Gutser". The Bulletin. p. 38.
  5. Vagg, Stephen (18 February 2019). "60 Australian TV Plays of the 1950s & '60s". Filmink.
  6. Marshall, Valda (3 September 1961). "TV Merry Go Round". Sydney Morning Herald. p. 92.
  7. "THIS WEEK ON ABC3". The Canberra Times. 37 (10, 588). 15 July 1963. p. 16. Retrieved 16 February 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  8. "Advertisement". Sydney Morning Herald. 17 July 1963. p. 14.
  9. Marshall, Valda (21 July 1963). "TV Merry Go Round". Sydney Morning Herald. p. 77.
  10. "ONE MORE WEEK". The Bulletin. 12 November 1966. p. 36.
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